The idea is not to bad but unfortunately at times I felt as if I was reading the synopsis, bullet points and not the full story. There is little depth to the characters and I was unable to connect with them and quite honestly by the end of the book (which took a while to eventually finish) I didn't really care about them either.
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2. Harold on 3/16/2012, said:
Good start -- hope it continues.
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3. Robert on 1/21/2011, said:
I liked the style, and the lack of "heroic gloss". It's not a masterwork, but it was self-consistent and I found it entertaining and thought-provoking.
Having said that, it won't be everyone's cup of tea, especially if they know what they like and like what they know.
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4. Michael on 8/30/2009, said:
Great read, the style was a nice change and helped the flow. thought provoking which is after all part of what we read for.
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5. Owen on 7/23/2009, said:
I liked the story, and once I appreciated the dialogue-style I found it flowed fairly well. Then I did grow up reading Celtic myths etc, so felt right at home - not everyones cup of tea....
Yes, the main character always had a trick up his sleeve to win the day, but that's the nature of this type of character - Robin Hood wouldn't be the same if he always lost....
At the end, I went looking for others by this author - says it all for me...
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6. Tracy on 7/21/2009, said:
I have to agree with others the writing style made it hard to read and keep straight who was saying what. It just comes off feeling disjointed to me. The story itself was enjoyable but it took three seperate tries before I was able to finish it.
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7. alan on 3/25/2009, said:
I really enjoyed the style but found the plotting had problems. There was little sense of tension if the empire ever seemed to be ahead because you always knew Harald had outthought them and a humongous army of cats and Ladies was waiting just over the next ridge. Even heroes need to make the occasional mistake.
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8. A. J. on 10/7/2008, said:
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I did not like the writing style. I believe in pronouns, complete sentences and characters with more depth. I also want them to have different speech patterns from class to class. If this is how the Eddas are written, I don't want to read them. They are good tales but they were written down by barbarians who were groping their way around a newly-discovered world of literature. Still, if you don't mind fragments at every turn, choppy dialogue, huge gaps in the plot, and an overall rough-hewn piece of writing, go ahead and read it. It's analogous to buying pre-torn jeans. Some people think it's art, others think it's silly and sloppy
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9. Anna on 11/28/2007, said:
A really distinctive writing style which reminds me of the poems translated by Tolkien.
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10. Wolf on 10/17/2007, said:
Its a very good book and the style is a nice modernization of the old Norse eddas. I have personally seen this book inspire some young readers to actually research and read Norse tales and epic poems. Upshot of it is, read the book. It is an awesome story and I hope that one or more follow-ups are in the future.
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11. Joel on 10/3/2007, said:
While I don't know for certain, I'm assuming the style comes from the Icelandic sagas, since I know Friedman has studied them. I didn't find it any more distracting than Manny's accent in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." People that did have a hard time probably can't read Shakespeare, either.
One of the things about the story structure that I liked was that each of the (5?) parts to the novel work as independent novellas, while still working together perfectly as a longer work.
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12. John on 9/30/2007, said:
Not for the low-brow reader - a stylized writing that is rarely seen these days - but well done at that. Reminicent of tales from the Icelandic skalds or Celtic bards.
Definitely a good read - if one has the capacity.
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13. darren on 7/26/2007, said:
a different writing style would have gotten this book a 4 or 5 star rating but having the entire book be in "Me Tarzan, You Jane" except without the pronouns made it annoying to read after awhile
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14. Robert on 7/22/2007, said:
The basic storyline and characters were ok, but the writing made it all but unreadable.
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